What's In a Name?
by The Blood Red Moon
Summary: Humans seemed to think that just because something is different is gives them the right to hurt it. A young Metro Man learns this lesson from his former victim: Megamind. TW: Child abuse, bullying and mostly non-graphic violence. Oneshot


A/N: This came from watching Megamind as I was babysitting two kids of a friend. After they fell asleep I couldn't get the idea out of my head. Reviews are welcome.

Warnings: This contains self-hate, severe child abuse, bullying and basically every screwed up thing I could think of. Most of it is just referenced but you have been warned. I also in no way encourage the harm of children in any way shape or form. If you are being abused please contact the police or an origination.

Disclaimer: I do not own Megamind, Metro Man or any other Disney created content. I do however own this plot idea and the writing of it.

What's in a name?

The corner. Again. Megamind was standing in the corner while the other children were out playing. He hadn't meant to do anything wrong, he had thought that he had calibrated the ray so that it would just pop the corn. Not light it on fire and bust the gun. With that thought he glanced down at his hands, they were covered in burns and his trigger finger looked almost charred. He snuck a look back at the floor where the bucket had burnt. It had already been repaired, not even a scuff mark remaining. Looking back at his hands he fought back tears _'Am I really less important than the floor?' _he asked himself and as he ran the facts through his head he came to the only conclusion he could '_Yes'_. From outside he could hear the laughter of the other children as they took turns being spun around and around by Metro Man. _'At least they don't get to hurt me with the dodge balls today.' _Megamind reassured himself and looked back at the corner with renewed hope, no one could pick on him when he was in the corner right? He relaxed and chose to enjoy the newfound safety of his corner.

It didn't last for very long, barely two days later and he was once more sitting in his corner. This time he hadn't done anything at all, he and Metro Man had been partnered for a lab project and Metro Man had mixed the chemicals that Megamind had told him not to together and it had blown up in his face. The teacher told him that he had used 'reverse psychology' to get the perfect boy to hurt himself, he didn't know what that word meant but he had been told to sit in his corner and so he sat. He had been quite content with it too until a three of the older children who learned in the school next door had come in. They stopped by every so often to pick up something or another for their teacher so he didn't pay them much mind up until the point where one of them had knocked him off his stool. Shock was covering his face as he looked up at the three children standing above him, all of whom were laughing _'Did I miss a joke?'. _Megamind tried to get to his feet only to have their laughter grown as one of them knocked his supporting hand out from under him causing him to fall flat on his face. Before he could get up a second one brought their foot down on his hand only to pull it back in surprise as a sicken crunch and an almost scream was pulled from Megamind as his felt his fragile bones shatter. The three boys quickly fled the building just before the teacher arrived to find him on the floor. Relief at a savoir quickly turn to fear as the women took on and angry look and began yelling at him to get back in his corner and to stop causing noise. When he couldn't move quickly enough due to his now broken hand Metro Man swooped in and grabbed him by his already bruised arms, putting him back on his stool before smiling to the other children and ushering everyone but Megamind outside.

Now all alone in the room again Megamind was afraid, what if the boy came back? He tried to move his hand but couldn't. Suddenly a thought struck him _'Why didn't Metro Man save me? He does good things right? He stops people who do bad things right? Hurting people is bad. He has really good hearing and he should have heard my hand break. So why didn't he save me?' _these thoughts flew back in forth in his head like trapped wasps and the more he thought about the more he found that there could only be two conclusions _'So either hurting me is good, or I'm not a person.'_. The second thought started a whole new chain of thoughts, things he had never thought about before _'Why aren't any of the other children blue? Why are their heads so small?' _the more he thought about these things the more he came to realize why nobody liked him _'I'm a monster.'_ He spent the rest of the day in his corner, the teacher said he had to skip lunch for being bad. It was okay though because he didn't have one. The people at the prison thought it would be a waste, they let him have some food every other week or so.

It had started with a simple question Megamind had been asked earlier that day. At the time it hadn't meant much when Metro Man had asked "Do you even have a name?" but now in the dead of night, with the men in white coats in the other room playing with his blood _'At least they aren't cutting me open this time.'_ He had begun to wonder as to the answer himself.

Turning towards the guard that brought him to the bad room (He called it that place because the white coat man always hurt him there.) he asked him "What's my name?" The guard raised his eyebrow at the boy before responding in a robot like voice

"You don't have a name, you aren't human and only humans get names. Your ID number is 27584." And Megamind asked him no more questions.

The next day school had been going okay, he had only broken his nose during dodge ball and he hadn't been sent to the corner once when Metro Man approached him while the rest of the class was outside, he didn't seem too hostile so the alien just kept reading his book until he restated his question from the day before. Megamind looked up at Metro Man with an odd look and observed his stance, arms crossed and a glare set on his face but in his eyes there was more honest curiosity than hatred so Megamind answered him with the same answer the guard had given him the night before "I don't have a name, I'm not a human and only humans get names. My ID number is 27584." And then turned back to his boom thinking that was that. He was not expecting to have the book ripped from his hands by a pissed off eight year old.

"What do you mean you don't have a name? Everyone has a name, you're just lying!" Metro Man said holding the book out of reach of Megamind his behavior now far more hostile.

Looking confused the blue skinned pre-teen answered the other boy with a raised eyebrow "I'm not lying that's what the guard said in the bad room last night." As he tried to get his book back.

The brown haired hero was now growing triumphant as he respond with "And why should I trust the word of someone so evil they go to the bad room? What is that bad room anyway?" At this point Megamind realized the whole point of this exercise had just been so the other boy could find something else to taunt him about. He was glad the Minyan was safe at the top of his cubbie.

He stood up and glared down the other boy before he defended himself by saying "Bad people don't go the bad room, I call it the bad room because that's where the white coat men cut me open and I don't like it very much. I'm not lying that's what the guard said and I don't care whether you believe me or not." His shouting had stunned the other boy who seemed to be coming on a horrible realization. Metro Man took a couple of second to mull over his words before he looked up and took a good look at Megamind. Now that he was trying to see he started to notice things, like how Megamind's nose was twisted and how he could see the tip of a scar on his elbow. He furrowed his brow as he tried to take it all in. Before glancing back up at Megamind's face which looked quite perturbed.

"What do you mean the white coat men cut you open?" he asked a small tone of horror hiding under some false hope that maybe it was just an error in words and after a seconds thought he added "And what happen to your nose."

Now getting quite annoyed by all these the child prisoner crossed his arm and answered "What does it sound like I meant. The men wearing white coats cut me open so they can look at me from the inside. And you broke my nose today during dodge ball. Now give me back my book!"

The answer did nothing to ease Metro Man's horror and he demanded "How can you just say that? Why haven't you asked for help? And why didn't you tell me I broke your nose, you need to see a doctor?!"

Megamind had been preparing to answer with equal rage, to tell him to stay out of his business up until the point where the word doctor was spoken at which point he tensed up like a deer caught in headlights for a few seconds before his eyes went unseeing and he almost threw himself into the nearest corner, his corner. Metro Man had no idea what to do as the blue alien curled himself into the smallest possible ball chanting over and over "I'm sor-ry, I didn't mean t-to. I'l-l ne-ver do it again. Please d-don't make me go to him." Through heavy sobs. He had brought up his arms to cover his head and neck with his face tucked into his legs.

"H-hey, snap out of it. You don't have to go see the doctor if you don't wanna." He tried to calm down the boy by taking him into an embrace but that only served to cause Megamind to stop his movements and breathing entirely. With no idea what to do the favored child couldn't help but notice how fragile the other child felt in his arms, how easy it would be to shatter his bones with a soft squeeze. As gently as he could he hugged the other boy while whispering reassuring words to him, trying to keep his own mind off how many times he had grabbed him without a second thought or dropped him in such a way that must have hurt him. He shook his head to clear those thoughts and spoke in a firmer voice "No one is going to hurt you anymore. I promise." This seemed to draw a reaction from Megamind whose eyes seem to refocus somewhat filled to the brim with tears both being shed and awaiting their turn.

In a small quiet voice that took super hearing to catch and in a tone so full of sadness, pain betray and unwillingness to hope that should have been impossible to fit all into such a short word "Why?" and with that simply question Metro Man's world crashed down around him. Now he could see that he wasn't anything like a hero, he was just a bully. As that word passed through him he realized all that he had forced Megamind through and just how much he had also broken the poor boy. Just how broken Megamind was. He also found that he had no answer for the thin, the very thin _'When was the last time he ate?' _blue skinned boy he now was cradling in his arms. There was nothing that he could say that could be believed given his past actions.

Instead of an answer he just replied "Because." And held the other boy just a bit tighter.


End file.
